A Low-Latency, Low-Power CMOS Sun Sensor for Attitude Calculation Using Photovoltaic Regime and On-Chip Centroid Computation

A Review of Optical Sensors in CMOS

“…The power consumption is capped at 63 µW for the continuous mode and 1.07 mW for the TFS mode, with both modes boasting a dynamic range higher than 100 dB. The continuous mode resolution stands at 1.23 • with an accuracy of 2.37 • (latitude) and 5.82 • (azimuth), whereas the TFS mode presents a higher resolution of 0.0048 • and an accuracy of 0.012 • (latitude) and 0.043 • (azimuth) [153].…”

“…The conclusion was that the equations fPD1(θ) and fPD2(θ) agree well with the measurements (with correlation factors of 97.7% and 94.1%, respectively). Gómez-Merchan et al introduced a sun sensor architecture that is particularly pertinent due to the rising demands of satellite deployment [153]. Its design leverages photodiodes in the photovoltaic regime instead of the conventional photoconductive mode, enabling zero power consumption for the photoreceptor and facilitating continuous signal generation with logarithmic compression.…”

“…Its design leverages photodiodes in the photovoltaic regime instead of the conventional photoconductive mode, enabling zero power consumption for the photoreceptor and facilitating continuous signal generation with logarithmic compression. Integrated with low-power asynchronous digital circuitry for on-chip region of interest (ROI) centroid computation, the sensor was fabricated using the UMC 0.18 μm technology with dimensions of 1516 μm × 1516 μm, in Gómez-Merchan et al introduced a sun sensor architecture that is particularly pertinent due to the rising demands of satellite deployment [153]. Its design leverages photodiodes in the photovoltaic regime instead of the conventional photoconductive mode, enabling zero power consumption for the photoreceptor and facilitating continuous signal generation with logarithmic compression.…”